PC Gurus: Help diagnose strange CPU/page file usage?
 

After running a monthly in-depth virus scan, I noticed that the PC was running a bit sluggish. So, I stopped all non-vital processes and checked the PC / Page file usage while at "idle" (no apps running, no browsers open). The CPU seems to be cycling from 1% to 36% every few seconds and using a constant 385mb of the PF:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1177117408.jpg
WTF?

I've ran all of the latest adware/spyware and virus checkers/killers, and still nothing has changed. The only thing I can think of is that the initial scan may have deleted something it wasn't supposed to. Any ideas on what to check next? TIA.



EDIT: Seems to be narrowed to explorer.exe when idle. When browser windows/tabs open, explorer.exe, iexplore.exe and csrss.exe peak and valley in concert with PF usage jumping up to/past 400mb. The more tabs open, the larger the "amplitude" of the usage swings.

SmileWavy

Probably not a problem withe the page file usage; most likely Windows operating system stuff, services, servers, etc. Wouldn't bother messing with it, I'd just leave it; Windows paging is pretty complex. If you're interested, you can read about it at the 2cpu.com forums; do a search in the Windows 2000 forum. Guy by the name of jeh, think he was a Windows architect.

As for the CPU usage, could be a few things. Is your AV disabled? That could cause the CPU to run some cycles every few seconds. Not really sure...

Is there a process running that you can see causing the spike? Go to the processes tab and sort by CPU usege.

Dave

Thanks guys,

Dave - Yeah, just edited my post. With browser tabs open, it seems that it's explorer, iexplore, and csrss that are spiking in unison. (??)

Get and run Hijackthis and post the results. I am off to dinner. I'll check back later.

Dave

OS's calculate initial swap file allocation as a percentage of installed RAM regardless of whether or not anything is running.

They grab a big chunk on startup so that the swap file is always allocated closest to where most activity occurs reducing head travel and also to prevent fragmentation of the swap file.

could it be the content on the page refreshing automatically that is spiking the cpu....

here is my desk with 3 static webpages in IE.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1177161320.jpg